14: Gunshots from an acquaintance? The homeroom teacher has a double identity!

The wipers swung mechanically back and forth, clearing two fan-shaped areas on the windshield.

Su Chen narrowed his eyes, his gaze piercing through the heavy curtain of rain to catch a fleeting spark on the ridgeline.

That was the muzzle flash of a high-caliber sniper rifle suppressed by a silencer—brief and cold.

"Get down!"

Su Chen barked, pressing down on the dazed Lin Mengyao.

Almost as he spoke, a figure so covered in blood that their original appearance was unrecognizable staggered out from the bushes by the riverbank.

It was a young woman; her dark blue windbreaker had been shredded into rags.

Her right leg seemed broken, dragging a startling red trail through the mud.

"Sister Qin... run..."

She threw herself against the closed door of the survival bus, her fingernails scratching the metal skin with an ear-piercing screech.

Su Chen saw the face clearly through the side window.

It was Qin Ya's "cousin" who had been missing for three days.

The intern teacher who had helped everyone move supplies before the teleportation.

"Siqi?"

Qin Ya's pupils constricted as she lunged for the door handle.

"Don't open the door!"

Su Chen's voice was as cold as a blade.

"She's my cousin!"

Qin Ya screamed, her well-manicured fingers clutching the door lock tightly.

"Death is following her."

Su Chen stared fixedly behind the woman.

The woman named Siqi looked up in despair, peering at Qin Ya through the glass. Her cracked lips moved, using the last of her strength to roar.

"Go... they know you're not dead... you are..."

A grotesque blood flower bloomed between Siqi's eyebrows. The impact of the high-velocity bullet blew away most of the back of her skull.

A mixture of red and white liquid splashed onto the car window, snaking down with the rain.

Qin Ya froze, her fingertips only centimeters away from the handle.

Su Chen noticed that Qin Ya didn't let out a piercing scream like Lin Mengyao.

Her face was pale, but the cold glint that flashed in her eyes was definitely not the reaction of an ordinary middle school teacher.

Qin Ya suddenly pushed open the window.

Before the second gunshot, she moved with extreme speed to hook a thin steel wire pendant around Siqi's neck.

With a "click," the pendant was torn off, bringing with it a blood-stained microchip.

"Su Chen, go!"

Qin Ya turned back, her voice eerily calm; only her trembling fingertips betrayed her inner turmoil.

Su Chen slammed on the gas, and the bus engine let out a roar like a trapped beast.

Li Sisi didn't need to be urged. She took the chip from Qin Ya, her fingers tapping on the tablet until they became a blur.

"Bypassing the bio-lock... damn, this is a Military Intelligence Bureau encryption format."

Li Sisi pushed up the glasses on the bridge of her nose. Small beads of sweat broke out on the tip of her nose due to extreme excitement.

"Deciphered... but this is impossible!"

"Read it."

Su Chen stared at the approaching muzzle flashes in the rearview mirror, his tone flat.

"Qin Ya, code-named 'Observer,' Observer for Sector 7 of 'Project Dawn.' Mission objective: Evaluate the genetic adaptability and sociality of the 'male survivor' Su Chen in Survival Bus No. 001."

After Li Sisi finished reading, her hand shook, and the tablet almost slipped.

"Teacher Qin... you've been monitoring Su Chen this whole time?"

The interior of the bus fell into a sudden, deathly silence.

Zhao Wanting stood up abruptly, her right hand instinctively gripping an iron rod she carried.

"So, you intentionally approached him, and even gave him water that night when he was exhausted, all just to write your observation report?"

Qin Ya sat in the shadows, slowly removing the plastic hairpin from her head.

It was a decoration she used to maintain her "intellectual teacher" image. As she removed it, she tucked her long hair behind her ears.

From Su Chen's perspective, he clearly saw a string of blue-purple barcodes printed on the fair skin behind Qin Ya's ear, with the last two digits being "07."

"I'm not an Observer."

Qin Ya looked directly into Su Chen's eyes through the rearview mirror, her gaze reflecting a resilience born from brokenness.

"I am Subject 07. Before the apocalypse, I was 'purged' for reporting the Lin Group's human experiments. It was General Zhao who helped me change my identity and escape into the education system."

She paused, her voice sounding exceptionally clear in the jolting cabin.

"Su Chen, I stayed not for some report, but because that night when you were repairing the car, my hand holding the wrench touched your back."

"At that time, your whole body was scalding hot, with a temperature of at least 60°C. That heat could instantly burn rubber, yet your skin was perfectly fine."

"That was a sign of the Extreme Yang Sacred Body awakening. Humanity needs you—not to use you, but because we need someone who can tear this hell apart."

Su Chen silent for a moment, then suddenly let out a low, cold laugh.

He freed his right hand and yanked open the collar of his white shirt.

Below his left collarbone, on the muscle calloused from long-term high-intensity martial arts training, an extremely faint brand—almost blending in with his skin tone—emerged.

Serial number: 00.

"My father was among the first batch of test subjects for the 'Sacred Body Project'."

Su Chen's fingers tapped the steering wheel, a ruthless glint in his eyes.

"You think you're the only one on the run? In this cage, we're just livestock marked with different grades."

Their eyes met in the rearview mirror. No words were needed for the seemingly accidental acts of care in the past.

How she always managed to avoid medications he was allergic to, and the special sugar water she gave him when his internal energy was depleted.

At this moment, it all connected into a logical loop.

"Su Chen."

Lin Mengyao suddenly spoke, interrupting this fated eye contact.

She tremblingly held Su Chen's right hand as he shifted gears, pressing his palm firmly against her flat, warm lower abdomen.

[High-purity "Resonance" level bond detected.]

Su Chen felt the Yang Energy inside him instantly surge out like a bursting dam, flooding through his palm.

Lin Mengyao let out a muffled groan, a sickly crimson flush appearing on her cheeks.

Her beautiful eyes stared at him, misty and clouded.

"The underlying data in the chip... has a distribution map of the backup power supply for the nearby Water Treatment Plant. But it's a biological permission lock; it requires dual authentication from a direct descendant of the Lin family and a carrier of the Sacred Body."

Without hesitation, Qin Ya reached out her cold palm and placed it over the overlapping hands of Su Chen and Lin Mengyao.

The body temperatures of the three people rose sharply in the narrow space.

Hum—!

The originally broken LCD screen on the bus's center console suddenly lit up.

A fluorescent green line, representing hope, stretched through the darkness, precisely marking a navigation path into the depths of the dense forest.

Zhao Wanting stared at the three hands pressed tightly together. Listening to the gunshots outside that clung like maggots to bone, she finally lowered her iron rod and spoke hoarsely.

"Count me in... take me with you, and let's smash those bastards' skulls."

Su Chen didn't waste words. He whipped the steering wheel, and the bus performed a wild tail-drift in the mud.

In the distance, several infrared laser beams, like a dense spider web, were frantically sweeping through the trees.

The gunshots grew closer, and the crisp sound of each ricochet hitting the vehicle's body challenged everyone's nerves to the limit.

The rain fell harder. At the distant mountain pass, a massive abandoned tunnel entrance looked like a monster with its maw wide open.

"Hold on tight."

Su Chen stared at the deep tunnel entrance. In the depths of his pupils, the golden light of the Extreme Yang Sacred Body flickered faintly.